Research areas
My overarching interest is in the role of social categories such as nation, ethnicity, class and religion in social and political life. I completed my doctoral research at the University of Sussex in 2009 and held positions at the University of Limerick and Queen鈥檚 University Belfast before coming to St 糖心logo as a lecturer in 2015.
Most of my current research falls into two main areas:
Racism and the politics of immigration
My initial work on this topic investigated the relationship between national identity and negative attitudes towards immigrants, arguing that this relationship needed to be understood in terms of the variable meanings and definitions of particular national groups, rather than as a generic mechanism linking the strength of ingroup identity to prejudice. Since then, I have been exploring the application of Herbert Blumer鈥檚 classic work on subjective group position in understanding anti-immigrant opinions. My ongoing work investigates this mainly in the UK context, with a focus on how socioeconomic inequalities shape how people perceive and respond to immigration.
Social psychology of religion
I鈥檓 interested in how people draw on religious ideas and practices in making sense of the social world, including social categories and matters of social justice. My research in this area has mainly been on Buddhism in various contexts and has included studies of resistance in Tibet, and the Ambedkarite Buddhist movement in India.
PhD supervision
- Carrie Hall
- Yansong Li
- Samata Shinde
Selected publications
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Open access
Fatima, I., Pehrson, S. D. & Jogdand, Y., 18 Mar 2025, In: Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. 35, 2, 14 p., e70079.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
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Open access
Ryan, C., Hopkins, N., Ahluwalia-McMeddes, A., Dobai, A., Pehrson, S. & Reicher, S., 1 Aug 2023, In: Political Psychology. 44, 4, p. 769-787 19 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
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Open access
Hopkins, N., Ryan, C., Portice, J. S., Strassburger, V. M., Ahluwalia-McMeddes, A., Dobai, A., Pehrson, S. D. & Reicher, S. D., 1 Jul 2023, In: British Journal of Social Psychology. 62, 3, p. 1141-1157 17 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
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Open access
Urbanska, K., Pehrson, S. & Guimond, S., 18 May 2021, In: Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology. 5, 2, p. 79-89
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
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Open access
Gheorghiu, M., Pehrson, S. & Christ, O., 28 Aug 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: British Journal of Social Psychology. Early View, 22 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
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Open access
Urbanska, K., Pehrson, S. & Turner, R., 14 Oct 2019, In: Journal of Social and Political Psychology. 7, 2, p. 2195-3325
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
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Open access
Moradi, S., Jang, K., Pehrson, S., Boden, H., Arahanga-Doyle, H., Hunter, J. A., Saleem, N. & Scarf, D., 26 Jun 2019, (E-pub ahead of print) In: K艒tuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online. Latest Articles, 15 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
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Brown, R. & Pehrson, S., 1 Jan 2019, Wiley. 329 p.
Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Book
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Open access
Urbanska, K. & Pehrson, S., 13 Aug 2019, In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 42, e143.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Comment/debate
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Open access
Pehrson, S., Devaney, L., Bryan, D. & Blaylock, D. L., 7 Sept 2017, In: PLoS ONE. 12, 9, 20 p., e0184436.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review